the fighting goes on in syria as a group of western and abrab nations are looking for a

way tend to the long and bloody conflict. friends of syria are meeting in laughon done today trying to get opposition forces to take part in a proposed peace conference in geneva. >> you can win at the negotiating table, but it may take a long time, a lot of loss of life, and potential destruction to win on the battlefield. so i think they see that. i think they see something very positive in that. and our hope is that this conference will begin. it will never be easy. phil neither leader is going to be there so what do they hope to accomplish? >> well, today not an awful lot. not an awful lot of forward movement in london for these talks. they were going to get closer towards the geneva 2 talks later

in november. but it doesn't look like that will happen, not the least of which reason is none of the opposition will agree. one of the leaders says he is so disheartened about what has happened in geneva that he is backing out too, so the west may be saying the only way to end the bloodshed will be talks, but the talks don't look like it is happening, so secretary of state kerry also saying there that the only victor out of a lack of talks will be continued bloodshed and more suffering for the syrian people. >> phil i guess the question has to be asked who are the winners and who are the loosers in this case? >> certainly the -- the winners of course, the assad regime, with the breakdown here.

that will only be good news for them. the russias will also look upon this favorably in the sense that the assad regime looks to be winning and they are very close allies with assad. other winners perhaps the iranians who also support assad. the losers, well, of course, the west does not look good. the friends of syria group is not getting any forward movement, and that makes them look increasingly dysfunctional, but another potential out of left field winner could be those groups allied with al-qaeda, because as various groups who still oppose assad and the sectarian violence in syria, or sectarian brinksmanship in syria, that those groups who support the more extremist elements may start funding them further as the west looks as though it is unable to make any

progress on the ground. >> phil, thank you very much. as for the fighting inside syria, it shows no signs of letting up. >> reporter: much of syria's war is now the battle for check points like this. in this town east of damascus, rebels break cover and mount their offensive. it's impossible to say which rebel group took this action, but these scenes are happening across the country. here the rebels appear to win, but that's not always the case. in the countryside, shelling continues for the fourth day. the damage is immense. even as the fighting continues a planned peace conference, dubbed geneva two finds it's a

embrawled in controversy, one group has decided it would like to continue its talks outside of the un. meanwhile assad has said the planned peace conference still has much work to do before it comes a reality. >> translator: there is no date, and there is no factors that help in holding it now if we want it to succeed. meaning who are the parties participating in geneva? what is the relation of these forces to the syrian people? do they event the syrian people or forces representing the countries that made it? if they wanted to suggest some suggestion later on which basis do we answer it as a country? who does it represent? >> reporter: with all sides trying to dominate the planned peace conference, it is likely that no one side will come out on top, particularly since russia and iran haven't been

included in the preliminary talks by the friends of syria ahead of the geneva two conference. >> aljazeera.com is providing special coverage of the plight of the syrian refugees. it includes is stories and video reports of the situation facing millions of syrians who have been displaced from their home and country by the ongoing syrian civil war. there is a new report out criticizing the u.s. for using drones to kill its enemies. they say the deadly strikes violate international law and could qualify as war crimes. here is a story of a family who's grandmother was killed in one of the strikes. >> reporter: this family say the 68-year-old mother and grandmother was killed in a u.s. drone strike in october of last year. all they have left to remember

her by is this photo from her id card. her son says these x rays show the injuries sustained by his children when the u.s. drone fired its missile near their home in the village. >> translator: everyone was working in the field where we have crops, and that's when the drone hit. our farm land is terrorists so when the missile struck it was so powerful that some of the children tumbled down the steps. >> the human rights organization expressed serious concerns over the deaths of people like these. >> the u.s. must explain why these people have been killed, people who are clearly civilians. it must provide justice and comp says, and invest gait those responsibility. >> reporter: the u.s. has launched between 330 to 370

drone strikes in pakistan between 2004 and last month. the united nations says during that nine-year period, more than 2,000 people have been killed in drone attacks and at least 400 are believed to be cillians. it's difficult to get accurate figures because the cia's drone program remains secretive, but that's unluck likely to prevent the prime minister from binging up the issue with president barack obama when the two meet on wednesday. >> pakistan cannot afford taking on a rivalry with the u.s., but if pakistan's requests are reasonable, the u.s. cannot just simply ignore them. >> reporter: earlier this year president obama called the strikes lawful and part of a legitimate campaign against terrorism. relationships between pakistan and the u.s. have been tense particularly since 2011 when

osama bin laden was found living not far from the pakistani capitol. but in a sign of warming ties, the obama administration has requested more than $1.5 billion in military and civil assistance for pakistan. and while drove strikes will no doubt continue to be a problem between the two countries, it would appear this relationship is on the mend as the u.s. prepares its exit from afghanistan by the end of next year. questions remain about the motive of the 12-year-old who shot and killed a teacher at a nevada middle school. two other students were wounded and then the shooter turned the gun on himself. melissa chen has more. >> reporter: just before the starting bell monday, gunfire at sparks middle school in nevada. >> active shooter, sparks middle school, they have at least two down, one in the drop-off area for the buses. suspect is described has wearing

khaki pants. >> reporter: students watched their class mated fire rounds from a semiautomatic gun. >> i heard gunshot and people started running and screaming, so i started running. and then weer heard another gunshot and the teacher yelled that we need to get inside the building. >> at that point my heart was racing. >> he shot a teacher, and the teacher fell straight to the ground. >> reporter: that teacher was a popular math teacher and former veteran who survived two duties in afghanistan. police say he died in an attempt to intervene. >> my estimation he is a hero. >> reporter: the suspected shooter also wounded two 12 year olds. they are in stable condition. the shooting lasted only three minutes, ending when the shooter turned the gun on himself. >> i thought that was going to be my last day.

>> reporter: school has been closed for the rest of the week. the shooter took the gun from his parent ts. his motive is unknown. this is the 16th school shooting in the country so far this year. melissa chen, al jazeera, sparks, nevada. there is a new report out that finds that 72% of americans say they are holding back on their spending. the main reason, stagnant wages, weak economy and the desire to save more. online finance firm adds that since consumer spending makes up about 70% of the economy, the report is bad news for future growth. and the latest unemployment figures have been released and the unemployment rate has dropped slightly, but no one is celebrating. >> reporter: this is the last employment report that won't be skewed by the lingering impact of the government shutdown. fingers were crossed there would be a recovery in the job market.

unfortunately there was no such thing. u.s. employers added just 148,000 jobs in september, much fewer than economists expected. the unemployment rate did fall to a five-year low, but the rate stayed flat. >> more people are falling out of the labor force. so while you are seeing the unemployment rate drop, it's not really a sign that things are getting better. >> reporter: the lack of progress in the laymor market to hold off plans to pull back on its stimulus policy. >> when people aren't feeling secure about their jobs, they are not in a position where they are going to go hog wild at the mall. >> reporter: and now we only

have to wait two weeks for the october jobs report. that's when we'll see -- [ technical difficulties ] . one group of people headed back to work today is congress, and the u.s. house of representatives. they are going to be looking at legislation protecting students from sexual predators and examine a bill promoting the adoption of foster children. the fast-food industry is notorious for paying low wages, but there is a restaurant in detroit that is trying something different. tom akerman has more. >> reporter: chicken, burgers and fries, the standard american menu. at moo cluck moo, the fair is fresh, locally sourced and custom made, and the motto here is better food fast. >> it's a great berger. we think that the quality of food is excellent here.

it's not like greasy fast-food. and i don't mind feeding my five year old daughter. she loves it too. >> reporter: in a city who's jobless rate 16%, the starting pay here is $12 an hour. >> they pay us quality. our wage living is higher than most other fast-food restaurants. and it makes us want to work harder for them and succeed with them. >> reporter: while service industry workers at food giants are walking off of the job to demand better pay. moo cluck moo believes a living wage is sound business practice. >> we don't have disgruntled employees. we would like to think that they are happy, and we like to keep them happy and challenge them. and if we get a more qualified or better worker, we'll get out of it what we're put going it.

>> reporter: another key to the business model, building its ties to the local community. >> giving back to people who are entrepreneurs, thinking out of the box, doing things differently, and meeting the needs of the people who live and work here. >> reporter: but management has much wider ambitions. >> the future is world domination. we are giving people an alternative to food that is not good for them. i just really believe that rapid expansion is in the works for moo cluck moo. give us 50 years and see what happens. >> reporter: maybe giving the city that all the world knows as motown a new name, moo cluck moo town. the website supporting the affordable care act isn't working as well as it should be. on monday president obama promised that the system would be fixed and fixed soon.

but what exactly are the problems and what will it take to fix them. john terrett has some answers. >> reporter: running too slow, giving out incorrect information, crashing. healthcare.gov has had a tough start to life. but it's a vast undertaking that must be capable of processing and interpreting information from millions of americans. a number of mistakes have been made including not attracting the best code writers. >> it's the quality of the entire management and process that is at fault here. because the top software engineers are not being attracted because the process is so broken, and it is very difficult to get work done under these circumstances. >> reporter: david is a tech giant who has worked for companies like microsoft and

google. so in words of one sill boll what did they do or didn't do that made this website so unstable. >> anyone who is sure they have identified the single problem, may, even if they are in the government and work for one of these contractors, they may not know what lurks underneath. >> reporter: with three dozen states relying on the exchange to offer insurance, there is no time to lose. >> they need to look at every piece of the system divided up between many private and public corporations and segments of the government. a verify it individually and then verify that they work together. >> reporter: the problems exist, yet even with the glitches a poll found that 23% say they had no trouble logging on. that figure drops to 8% of those

polled who identify themselves as against the policy. this has certainly been a troubled beginning for the president's signature policy. dave warren has your weather forecast straight ahead. we'll show you why some residents of northeastern china might like some strong winds. uncovers unheard, fascinating news stories? >> they share it on the stream. >> social media isn't an after-thought, it drives discussion across america. >> al jazeera america's social media community, on tv and online. >> this is your outlet for those conversations. >> post, upload and interact. >> every night share undiscovered stories.

♪ you might want to take a deep breath and enjoy it while you can because this next story may have you gasping for air like the residents of china. >> reporter: autumn days in china never used to be this dark, but years of rapid industrialalization means this has become the new normal. it it's aggravated by the seasonal burning of crop stocks.

in this city visibility was at less than 3 meeters in some areas. in harbin the unhealthy fog also lead to schools being closed public bus routes not being used and the airport needing to stop operations. breathing is also a problem. the pollution levels in many areas are going beyond hazardous on international measuring scales. the accuse pollution is also a political issue. the smog has become a symbol of excess and feeds in growing public anger. information on pollution levels and its effect on health is now easily available. the central government needs to show sthat serious about handling the problem. it is pushing for a shift to cleaner engive and will allocate over $800 million as further

incentive to regions that reduce pollution by the end of the year. >> [ inaudible ] for instance [ inaudible ] china, by reducing this overcapacity, we actually save a lot of energy use, and then china has to have a lot of potential on energy efficiency. and that's another solution for china. >> reporter: much has to change in china and change quickly. the world health organization recently reported that air pollution leads to cappencer. it's time now to turn things around. ♪ and dave warren and i were just talk this brings up shades of pennsylvania. >> yes, that's right.

western pennsylvania the weather pattern had a lot to do with that, along with pollutants in the air. the air here is sinking. it's clear. there's a light breeze and no rain. over to china, there are three weather patterns come nating the area here. so it has kept the air trapped and the air can't go anywhere. the clouds here, that's a front moving through the area. that will stir up the atmosphere and lead to better conditions. 41 degrees in chicago, 58 in memphis, a lot warmer along the east coast and there is rain here. and this is a front that cool air is moving through northeastern pennsylvania, western new york, but it will stop and develop into a coastal

storm over the next 24 hours. that's why we're seeing heavy rain here. a storm develops just off of the coast as that cool air comes into the warmer ocean waters intensifying that storm. we'll look at rainy weather here along the coast. temperatures are into the 60s and will continue to climb into the upper 60s before the rain gets here, but then drop. only into the 50s by tomorrow. by tomorrow morning, 40s with rain developing and rain coming down only climbing into the 50s there. this will be the story from philadelphia all the way up the east coast of boston, rain coming down, clearing out by thursday, but cooler breeze remains thursday and friday. two tropical systems may impact japan, and we'll watch that as well. >> dave warren thank you very much. a cargo ship successfully

left the international space station this morning. it was its first successful demonstration. the capsule will be used to deliver supplies back and forth. how much do you spend on coffee each and every day? we have got some good news for you. al jazeera continues right after this. ♪

news stories? it drives discussion across america. >> share your story on tv and online. ♪ welcome back to al jazeera america. here is a look at your top stories. secretary of state john kerry is in london meeting with world leaders about the war in syria. just moments ago, kerry saying the political solution is the only way to end the conflict. a weaker than expected jobs report is due out today. employers adding 148,000 jobs in september. it was a late report. unemployment dropped to 7.2%. that report delayed due to the government shutdown.

police have not yet said what was the motive behind the deadly shooting in nevada. a 12-year-old opened fire killing a teacher and two of his fellow students, wounding two of his fellow students and later killing himself. this next story comes as a bit of good news. >> if drink a cup of coffee is part of your daily grind, it could be an increasingly cheaper habit. and that is thing to increase in production. production this season will exceed demand by nearly 4.5 million bags, and that's on top of a 10 million bag surplus from last year. the packed warehouses are driving prices down. on monday the price tommed to

$1.12 per pound. that's the lowest it has been since march 2009. at the store one might expect to pay around $10 for a kilo gram bag. let's do the math. a key -- kilo yields roughly 80-100 cups. the coffee chain starbucks is facing scrutiny in china this week because state media is accusing of it of overpricing. $4.50. nearly a third more than in the united states. even though the price of beans is on the downward trend it is mostly at supermarkets where one is likely to get more brew for a buck. >> thanks for the good news.

thank you for watching al jazeera america. "the stream" is up next. cheers. ♪